Loretta Lynn Webb was born on April 14, 1932, until her death on October 4, 2022, at the age of 90 years. She was an American singer-songwriter. In a career that spanned six decades in country music, Lynn released multiple gold albums. She had hits such as “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”, “One’s on the Way”, “Fist City”, and “Coal Miner’s Daughter”. In 1980, the film Coal Miner’s Daughter was made based on her life.
Lynn received numerous awards and other accolades for her groundbreaking role in country music, including awards from both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music as a duet partner and an individual artist. She was nominated 18 times for a GRAMMY Award, and won 3 times. Lynn is the most awarded female country recording artist and the only female ACM Artist of the Decade (1970s). Lynn scored 24 No. 1 hit singles and 11 number one albums. She ended 57 years of touring on the road after she suffered a stroke in 2017 and then broke her hip in 2018.
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Loretta Lynn was married to her husband Olivier Lynn from 1948 to 1996. She was married for almost 50 years until her husband died at age 69 in 1996. In her 2002 autobiography Still Woman Enough and in an interview with CBS News the same year, she recounted how her husband cheated on her regularly and once left her while she was giving birth. Lynn and her husband fought frequently, but she said that “he never hit me one time that I didn’t hit him back twice.” Loretta has said that her marriage was “one of the hardest love stories”. In one of her autobiographies, she recalled:
I married Doo when I wasn’t but a child, and he was my life from that day on. But as important as my youth and upbringing was, there’s something else that made me stick to Doo. He thought I was something special, more special than anyone else in the world, and never let me forget it. That belief would be hard to shove out the door. Doo was my security, my safety net. And just remember, I’m explainin’, not excusin’… Doo was a good man and a hard worker. But he was an alcoholic, and it affected our marriage all the way through.
Lynn owns a ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. Billed as “the Seventh Largest Attraction in Tennessee”, it features a recording studio, museums, lodging, restaurants and western stores. Traditionally, three holiday concerts are hosted annually at the ranch, Memorial Day Weekend, Fourth of July Weekend, and Labor Day Weekend.
Since 1982, the ranch has hosted Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Championship motocross race, the largest amateur motocross race of its kind. The ranch also hosts GNCC Racing events. The centerpiece of the ranch is its large plantation home which Lynn once resided in with her husband and children. She hasn’t lived in the antebellum mansion in more than 30 years.
Lynn regularly greets fans who are touring the plantation house. Also featured on the property is a replica of the cabin in which Lynn grew up in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. In the mid-1970s, Lynn and her husband built a house in Teacapán, Mexico which they owned for a couple of decades. Lynn and her husband also bought a cabin in Canada.
Loretta Lynn Children
Loretta and Oliver Lynn had six children together:
Betty Sue Lynn (November 26, 1948 – July 29, 2013)
Jack Benny Lynn, (December 7, 1949 – July 22, 1984)
Ernest Ray “Ernie” Lynn (born May 27, 1951)
Clara Marie “Cissie” Lynn (born April 7, 1952)
Peggy Jean and Patsy Eileen Lynn (born August 6, 1964; twin daughters named for Lynn’s sister, Peggy Sue Wright, and her friend, Patsy Cline.) Lynn’s son, Jack Benny Lynn, died at age 34 on July 22, 1984, while trying to cross the Duck River at the family’s ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. In 2013, Loretta’s daughter, Betty Sue, died at age 64 of emphysema near Loretta’s ranch in Hurricane Mills.
Health problems and other issues
Over the years, Lynn has suffered from various health concerns, including pneumonia on multiple occasions, and a broken arm after a fall at home. Lynn missed a tribute to her from other women of country in 2010 due to undergoing knee surgery.
In May 2017, Lynn had a stroke at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. She was taken to a Nashville hospital and subsequently had to cancel all of her upcoming tour dates. The release of her new album Wouldn’t It Be Great was delayed until 2018. On January 1, 2018, Lynn fell and broke her hip. She has not toured or performed on the Grand Ole Opry since 2017. Lynn died peacefully at home October 4, 2022, at the age of 90.
At the height of her popularity, some of Lynn’s songs were banned from radio airplay, including “Rated “X””, about the double standards divorced women face; “Wings Upon Your Horns”, about the loss of teenage virginity; and “The Pill”, with lyrics by T. D. Bayless, about a wife and mother becoming liberated by the birth-control pill. Her song “Dear Uncle Sam”, released in 1966, during the Vietnam War, describes a wife’s anguish at the loss of a husband to war. It was included in live performances during the Iraq War.
In 1971, Lynn was the first solo female country artist to perform at the White House, at the invitation of President Richard Nixon. She returned there to perform during the administrations of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
Although Lynn has been outspoken about her views on controversial social and political subjects, she stated, “I don’t like to talk about things where you’re going to get one side or the other unhappy. My music has no politics.” In her autobiography, Lynn said her father was a Republican and her mother a Democrat.
When asked about her position on same-sex marriage by USA Today in November 2010, she replied, “I’m still an old Bible girl. God said you need to be a woman and man, but everybody to their own.” She endorsed and campaigned for George H. W. Bush in the presidential election in 1988.
In 2002’s Still Woman Enough, she discussed her longtime friendship and support for Jimmy Carter. During the same time period, she made her only recorded political donation, $4,300, to Republican candidates and Republican-aligned PACs.
Lynn was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2013. While a recognized “advocate for ordinary women”, Lynn has often criticized upper-class feminism for ignoring the needs and concerns of working-class women. She once stated, “I’m not a big fan of women’s liberation, but maybe it will help women stand up for the respect they’re due.”
Loretta Lynn cause of Death
Loretta Lynn died on October 4, 2022, in her home in Hurricane Mills, Tenesee. Lynn’s funeral arrangements were not immediately released. However, In 2016, Lynn expressed support for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, stumping for him at the end of each of her shows. She stated, “I just think he’s the only one who’s going to turn this country around.” Lynn allowed PETA to use her song “I Wanna Be Free” in a public service campaign to discourage the chaining of dogs outside.
Loretta Lynn net worth
The net worth of Loretta Lynn is estimated at around $65 million as of 2022.